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There, I said it. Invoking the words of Tina Turner, no less, from the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack. We've got a deluge, a torrent, a tsunami of superhero movies on the way. And I don't think it's going to end well.

I blame Bryan Singer. The X-Men director reminded us in 2000 that comic book movies could be smart, grounded in reality and draw from the source material without being enslaved by it. X-Men was the antidote to a decade that had seen Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever and Batman & Robin turn one of the world's greatest superheroes into a rubber-nippled laughingstock.

But now the needle is swinging too far in the other direction. At the recent San Diego Comic-Con, we heard new details about not only the sequel to The Avengers, but about Superman teaming up with Batman in the next Man of Steel movie, about how Spider-Man's foes in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 might dovetail with The Amazing Spider-Man 3, about Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man and possible spinoffs and one-shots and team-ups and crossovers and so on, ad infinitum.

How much is too much?

Marvel's been smart - and perhaps a bit lucky - by producing a series of high-quality solo superhero adventures that tied together wonderfully in The Avengers. Iron Man 3 showed that fans' appetite for the world's greatest heroes had yet to be sated, and that bodes well for this fall's Thor: The Dark World and next year's Captain America: Winter Soldier. Neither will enjoy the same success as Iron Man 3, but they're known quantities. They'll do well.

But now it feels like Hollywood is getting greedy. And sloppy. They're milking the superhero cash cow too quickly and too roughly, and everyone wants in on the action. X-Men: Days of Future Past looks intriguing; The Wolverine much less so. I like the character of Magneto, but I don't want Magneto solo movie. And X-Force? That's just excessive.

While I can now concede that Guardians of the Galaxy could be a novel change from the lineup of more familiar earthbound heroes, the super-types being bandied about for the next wave of flicks is making me cringe. Doctor Strange? Black Panther? The Inhumans? Have we already run out of household name super-types?

No medium has been able to support a sustained glut of one kind of entertainment for too long. In books, people eventually got sick of young wizard adventures and vampire novels. In video games, the once mega-successful Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises imploded because the companies behind them made too many, too quickly. Reality TV shows about people looking for love exploded and died, with only The Bachelor family still chugging along. People get bored of the same thing over and over, even if it comes in slightly different packaging each time. And all it takes is a couple of high-profile critical flops to kill a winning streak. Just ask Batman, circa 1997.

So while I wish all the best to the 20-odd superhero movie projects in various stages of pondering and planning, I think the Thunderdome effect will eventually kick in. Many will enter, but only a few will be left standing. And ultimately, it might be for the best.

We need a break from superhero movies

There, I said it. Invoking the words of Tina Turner, no less, from the Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack. We've got a deluge, a torrent, a tsunami of superhero movies on the way. And I don't think it's going to end well.

I blame Bryan Singer. The X-Men director reminded us in 2000 that comic book movies could be smart, grounded in reality and draw from the source material without being enslaved by it. X-Men was the antidote to a decade that had seen Joel Schumacher's Batman Forever and Batman & Robin turn one of the world's greatest superheroes into a rubber-nippled laughingstock.

But now the needle is swinging too far in the other direction. At the recent San Diego Comic-Con, we heard new details about not only the sequel to The Avengers, but about Superman teaming up with Batman in the next Man of Steel movie, about how Spider-Man's foes in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 might dovetail with The Amazing Spider-Man 3.

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When Dr. Frankenstein created his infamous monster, he grabbed bits and pieces of various corpses, stitched them together and brought them to life – or some unnatural semblance thereof – with a massive jolt of electricity.